Fascinating Aïda: Charm Offensive at New Theatre, Oxford

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A backstage glitch meant that the army of fans — a healthy number of young faces dotted among the middle-aged — had to wait outside in the cold. Once in the auditorium, they heard a sheepish Dillie Keane explain that the show’s lighting was still not functioning.

By the end I doubt anyone cared in the slightest. When the wordplay is as ingenious as this, you would not really mind if the theatre were plunged into pitch darkness, although that would mean missing the baleful, perfectly timed double-takes that Keane produces whenever Adèle Anderson or Liza Pulman negotiate a particularly risqué couplet